Suresh Prabhu assured startups that the government would help them grow faster

Newly appointed Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu on Wednesday sent a message to Indian startups, saying that that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to promote startups in a big way. Mr Prabhu, in a video posted on microblogging site Twitter assured entrepreneurs that the "the power of the state (is) behind them," and offered his best wishes to all those who are starting a new enterprise.

"I joined this ministry two days ago, and the PM has asked me to look at the entire ecosystem and promote startups in a big way," he said.

Listing out some of the initiatives to promote startups, Mr Prabhu said that the government has created a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore and decided to give guarantees to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore to startups. The Cabinet Minister called entrepreneurs "change agents" for the society and urged them to be confident and pursue their ideas.

"If you start something today, you will actually be the leading company of tomorrow," he said. Mr Prabhu also assured startup founders that they were not only part of his responsibility but also part of his "family."

The Commerce Minister also said that while historically, the government has - not by design, but by default - created impediments in the path of entrepreneurs, the current government's aim is to not only remove obstacles, but also "put the power of the state behind you so that you can move fast."

Mr Prabhu was moved out of the Railway Ministry and was handed over the Commerce and Industry portfolio in the cabinet reshuffle this week. The development came after Mr Prabhu took moral responsibility for the Kalinga Utkal Express' derailment near Khatauli in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district on August 19 that killed 23 people. Two more trains derailed last month.